This may be the longest post I’ve ever written and summarize some reflecting I’ve been doing on politics, business, and religion. This is merely an opinion, subjective as it is. Currently, something just ain’t right with society and it revolves and involves these three spheres.
Way back in the day there was an inherent trust in our elected leaders, in our bosses, and in our religious leaders. However it happened and exactly when it happened is not my concern, but it seems clear that there is an undercurrent of great anger in our society toward, and in, these 3 spheres. And, I don’t mean just because of the last few weeks of chaos–this has been going on and building for quite some time. The anger is a result of broken trust.
Whereas there was a time when you had a disagreement with someone you would disagree, even passionately, but when one side “won,” you put aside the arguments and did what was best of the whole, or the group, or the business, or what have you. Now, it seems that folks see people who disagree with them as enemies. It’s like a mentality of “I’ve got mine and I’m not giving you any of it, you’re on your own.” Or, “You don’t agree with my point of view so I hate you and will have nothing to do with you.” This applies in politics, business and religion.
This bitterness, apathy, cynicism, and anger, I think, are bubbling to the surface because of sense of trust being broken or abused. Elected leaders were supposed to do what was best for the country and the greater good of the American public, not inflate their egos and grab as much cash and favors as possible. Trust has been broken and people of all political stripes are guilty of it. As it stands, in some states it does not matter that you vote for Candidate A because all of your state’s electoral votes are already committed to Candidate B. Something ain’t right when we the people only have 2 candidates to choose from for President, and those choices were basically picked for us, due in large part to who had the most money to last the longest. And, despite whatever promises were made on the campaign trail, candidates at any level of politics rarely ever able to fulfill their promises, so people get excited only to see that, once elected, candidates basically do whatever was done before with some window dressing and call it change or different or helping the American people. It’s a positive that people are shaking off the cobwebs of naivete’ and seeing the political machinery for what it is. And they are getting angry at being misled and lied to at every turn because they feel they have been used for candidate’s personal aspirations, instead of the candidate’s wanting to get elected to serve the people. Something ain’t right.
Business leaders were to help create an environment where people could contribute toward creating a product or what have you and get paid a decent wage for good work, not pad their accounts with beyond reasonable compensation packages and golden parachutes that reward mediocrity in the name of “remaining competitive for top-level employees.” Trust has been broken when employees see the head honchos “getting theirs” and the employee is wondering how they will afford their HMO co-pay. A culture of greed has arisen where people see that if they don’t get what they need/want, then the “company” isn’t going to do it. There appears to be a growing sentiment that the worker is getting used to prop up the company head honchos with great inequity. Yet when there are hard times, it’s the worker that gets laid off or downsized and entire communities are turned upside down. Meanwhile the people with “chief” as part of their title still willingly collect their bonus packages of millions of dollars and are apparently at peace with getting rewarded for leading a company into failure. No one is twisting their arm to accept grandiose pay packages. Any one of them could say, “Hey, I don’t need a total package of 16 million dollars, especially when our lowest paid employee only gets paid $28,000.” A culture of greed has arisen and trust has been broken. Something ain’t right.
Religion, for those who chose to believe, provided comfort, guidance, and stability in people’s lives. Now it serves as a focal point of distrust, feelings of abandonment, and disgust. Again, there is this undercurrent of anger welling up and exploding at religion and religious organizations, just as with politics and businesses. Priests have molested. Pastors have stolen. People have been excluded or worse, ignored. Trust in an entity that used to offer compassion and comfort has been broken. Instead we have religious organizations that are splitting over issues that may be important, but nonetheless weaken the witness in society. People shop for churches like they shop for a bank–who has the most convenient services and location and “look! they give me a free toaster!” So, while the arguing over who is preaching the “right” sermons, and the disagreements over how someone should come into the church are antagonizing people away, there are people all over this planet who have never heard of Jesus. There are people in our own cities who are dying for lack of basic necessities of life and we sit in meetings discussing the color of tile for the new food court, or what movie clip will best illustrate the latest message. We have confused attracting lots of people to a certain place at a certain time for making disciples. Something ain’t right.
Politics. Business. Religion. These 3 spheres engage every person on some level. These 3 spheres constitute a huge section of our lives and affects us deeply. The decisions in politics affect how our healthcare is provided to us, and the decisions in business affect whether we have fulfillment through work and a wage upon which to live and contribute to society, while the decisions in religion affect our soul and upon what we place our hope. Distrust reigns in these days in these spheres.
So people are wanting answers to questions like: “Who is going to take care of me, my health, my finances, my beliefs, my life, my future?”
As a society, it seems we have put a great deal of dependence and trust on the 3 spheres for the answers to these questions. So, much like a teenager who wakes up one day and is told by his parents that he is now responsible for washing his own clothes or for paying his own car insurance, we as a society are screaming, “What the hell do you mean?!”
I don’t have answers and I’m not real sure that little tweaks to any of these spheres would make any difference at all (which is why it is ridiculous for the two current candidates to actually promise or believe that they are going to sweep into the entrenched career bureaucracy of DC and “change” anything). I just know that something ain’t right in these 3 spheres.
Your thoughts?
